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tv   [untitled]    December 9, 2012 10:30pm-11:00pm PST

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preserve and keep these as well as develop new opportunities with local nonprofit agencies which are developing such as affordable housing opportunities for a variety -- for diversity of our population which really needs the assistance, not only do we have to keep our middle class and our families in san francisco, we need to keep our entire age and income and ethnic population spectrum intact in san francisco. but i am very concerned, as i said before, with the public aesthetic. things do have to move forward. so i'm open to any questions you may have. >> thank you, mr. steen actually, just really quickly, actually the seat has been vacant for over a year, i'm curious how you learned about this vacancy. >> i was actually before the rules committee two weeks ago with an application for the
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(inaudible) monitoring committee and i became aware of the committee vacancy just prior to those nominations to the monitoring committee. i had withdrawn my application and you had gone ahead and forwarded 5 nominees to fill 6 seats. i am going through the local homeless coordinating board for a separate seat on the shelter and monitoring board to that body. working on both these committees will not really impact my time a great deal. the committee meetings are in the evening, i live within the district, work part-time right now at laguna honda as a patient mentor to aids patients, those who are hiv positive. i was just really surprised to see or to hear this opportunity,
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committee opportunity, occur at the same time i was here for the elder monitoring committee. >> thank you. are there any questions from committee members? >> just curious, i used to live in isla vista. just curious what your contributions to the landscape in isla vista were. >> actually, my contribution was more to community services as opposed to direct land use issues. i did serve on the university of california santa barbara lrdp advisory committee as well as the community advisory planning council which was the pre-city council for the city of calida that is there. i wrote the incorporation proposal for a city of 17,000 called isla vista. while at isla vista, i
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directly created, developed, lobbied, got funded and hired the first legal defense center which is now in operation by the university of california santa barbara and that was i don't want to say how many years ago that was. that was in 1978. and i was also on the board of directors and helped develop the very first community federal credit union in the united states which is the isla vista federal credit union out of which many have developed, including the san francisco credit union, based on geographical residence as opposed to a company membership. i also, supervisors want like this as you are all elected, i was the co-sponsor of the first legal ballot option for voting none of the above in the state of california and that was indeed adopted by the santa
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barbara board of supervisors and allowed by the state elections department to appear as an actual -- and this occurred back in 1978 as well. since then there was a petition campaign to place that on the ballot, in fact it was placed on the ballot in the state of california where it was defeated as well as in the state of nevada where i believe it was passed or modified. so that was in my younger student days while yippies were still around, things of that nature. confrontation politics. yeah, there are a number of other things as well as training and mentoring probably hundreds and hundreds of people in santa barbara while running employment training programs, housing programs, disability access programs, and utility rate programs. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. steen
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one of the things that of course came up a couple weeks ago is that this is the low income seat for the market-octavia citizens advisory committee. while we have many qualified applicants we want to be sure there is one member who can represent the point of view of low income residents. >> from the perspective of being a low income representative. there's a declining number of low income residents within the boundaries of the market-octavia plan. as housing costs go up, a number of residents that are in there that are living in the sro's within the boundaries are living in supportive housing units that are operated by the city, its hsa or directed supportive housing. there are many more of course in the
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tenderloin. what i would like to do is possibly have the city take a look at mass leasing an entire number of sro's that are currently within the boundaries and working those within supportive housing boundaries where we can remove or have homeless people removed from the street and entered into some type of supportive service environment, perhaps where people can actually re-enter the work force, but what other issues, i would have to say disabled access, disability access for any and all new developments. i have been working that area for quite a while. and generally just improving the quality of life and safety. a number of people who are pedestrians and bicyclists are also low income so really improving pedestrian bicyclist safety as much as possible and that concerns low
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income to very low income seniors and disabled. if they can't live there, there's no point in having a low income repltive -- representative on the board, on the committee. >> thank you, mr. steen supervisor weiner. >> thank you, a significant part of the planners in district 8, i work closely with the cac on a regular basis, it's a very important cac and i thank you for your interest. so a couple things. are you the matthew steen of underground fame?
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>> i didn't know that was going to come up, but yes, sir. water under the bridge but it still catches up with us. >> thank you. you mentioned wanting upper market to be a sunshine corridor i think was the phrase you used. we all want sunshine to be everywhere in our city, but can you describe what you mean by that? the market-octavia plan did upzone a number of corner lots throughout the upper market area and octavia as well up to 65 feet as part of a transit first policy in terms of so much of that housing or proposed possible housing is close to transit. so can you just explain a little more what you meant by sunshine corridor? >> my concern was the height limitations and any modifications to those height limitations. i have not had a chance to read the actual plan
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documents, hopefully i would have access to the documents of course if i were a serving member of the committee. while i may be a bit behind the curve in current planning issues, i am a very quick learner. >> i'm not criticizing, i'm just asking what you meant. >> making sure the height limitations aren't modified upwards so there would be at least -- also as long as they comply with current city ordinances regarding sunshine. >> you mentioned the building of condos. can you just describe a little more what you were referring to? >> condominium developments, basically, i don't know -- could be that these are actual rental units going up within the developments on market. i revert to the old term condominiums so that's basically what i meant. >> a number of the projects
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that are either planned or about to go into construction in the plan area are rentals. >> okay. >> there's a mix. >> okay, thank you. >> can you talk a little bit about this car sharing, one of the issues that we're really taking a look at is accessibility of car sharing in the upper market area. could you maybe talk about that a little bit? >> well, obviously car sharing with the location of the facilities, car sharing facilities, so i'm assuming this is going moving right along here and moving one step further. first i would have to wonder where exactly the facility for car sharing, whether this would be one on one done iconically through electronic means, customer to customer or sharer to sharer. i have to study that issue a
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little bit more. >> more specifically about care sharing spots in developments, for example, in the market-octavia plan area in terms of requirements for making them optional for making them possible. >> well, i would say that that would be a very favorable to have those required in new developments as a percentage of off street parking that is required for lease developments, yes, of course. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much for your consideration and time. >> thank you, mr. steen next, we have nick wolff, nick you have spoken before to this committee but you are welcome it speak again if you would like. i know many of the questions had come up around not really your qualifications to sit on the seat, you are very well qualified to sit on the cac as someone who works in the market-octavia plan but to really flesh out some of how
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you would represent the low income community in this seat. >> sure. thank you, madam chair and supervisors. thank you for your time today. i did believe that i am the right person for this seat and i welcome this opportunity to discuss my candidacy further. i work in the economic development department in the lgbt center in market and octavia. i also commute to work on muni every day and i am invested in this area's development. i have the background and leadership experience in community development and i am committed to bringing the needs of low income residents to the forefront in this seat. along with an understanding of gentrification and displacement about how that will adversely affect long time residents of this area, in particular the low income and lgbt community when you talk about breaking
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support networks and eroding political power, i also understand a lot of the core land use issues as well. in particular housing and again while i understand that this cac doesn't formally get involved until permits are filed, one of my real priorities in this seat is affordable housing and rental options, in particular given how much of a safety net that they are in the city and as a homelessness prevention measure right now. i think it's important to address the fact that many of the developers in the upper market area have been able to fee out of the inclusionary zoning requirements, which is an important tool as we work to create economically diverse communities within this project area. access to clean safe public open space is something that every resident in this
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area deserves and every effort needs to be made to prioritize open space preservation and creation. low income populations in particular are more likely to be victims of pedestrian-vehicle accidents so making intersections safer, particularly along upper market, is a priority of mine as well. so, too, are creating pathways in the form of service and support for better life outcomes for existing residents. so i'd like to see an emphasis put on economic and employment support that prioritizes local residents. something so much like the soma stablization fund that we heard earlier. specifically i like, i want to create pathways and support around eviction prevention, down payment assistance, tenant repair and maintenance and healthy
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outcomes as well through support services from local nonprofit providers, lion martin, alliance aids health project and others. i'm committed in the seat of staying connected and accountable to the evolving concerns of residents, low income residents, through periodic check-ins with leaders who i have relationships with, with community housing partnership, mercy housing and others. and this of course is on top of my day-to-day work at the lgbt center where a majority of individuals who come through the door on a daily basis are low income, many extremely low income. so i want to reiterate my desire to serve in this seat on this committee and thank you for your time this afternoon. >> thank you, mr. wolff, thank you so much for coming back again to the rules committee. i just have a quick question
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about something you said, how the fee out inclusionary program helped contribute to the diversity of communities? i may have misheard you. >> this inclusionary zoning fee is a tool to create economically diverse communities and i think the ability to fee out of that works against that as a goal of the cac >> the community recently wrote a letter against the fee out. are there any questions from committee members? seeing none, we will move on to public comment. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. my name is thomas harper, i
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work with the chp subdivision solutions sf working with low income housing as a temporary desk clerk. i also am an entrepreneur working on my small business street studios which is expanding to become a program that will support other low income youth in poverty who are creative to rocket into that area where they can sell and produce their own creative works. i feel that i speak on behalf of other maligned young very low income people of my age set. when i say that last year i was homeless in the shelters and now i have supportive income housing, i am transgendered and i speak for that subset as well and i'd
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like to be able to say that more than has ever been appropriate before, the children are the future. people say that but at this point the people of my age set who are going through these difficult things are also the people who are really linked into the technology, into google, into self-education, these sort of just free spread of information things, and they are the ones who are solving the problems. they are the ones who are coming up with solutions to the stuff that they are in every day, head deep, and i'm one of them. and if it wasn't for him helping me at lgbt center, pointing me in the correct direction, i wouldn't be creating a program to help other youth of my own age. you can have all the great ideas that you want when you are in the homeless system but without that supportive housing then you won't get anywhere. thank you for your time.
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>> thank you so much for being here. we appreciate hearing from you. is there any other public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is now closed. colleagues, we have item 7 before you which was continued from two weeks ago. supervisor avalos. >> thank you, i do appreciate both candidates being here. i appreciate mr. wolff coming here a second time as well and want to thank you for deepening your commitment and your response to our questioning here at the committee. i'm actually very impressed with mr. steen's, his work in the past and his current work as well, he has not stopped his commitment i believe to working with and on behalf of low income people and i feel that he better represents the interests of what this seat is about and he's talking about a lot of things that i think are
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a big concern of mine as we're seeing san francisco move in a direction that is working more for the wealthy when he clearly hits the notes i want to hear when he talks about making sure we have the perspective of folks that are not getting the advantage that many others are getting in the city. that's something we have to look for as a city and i want to appoint people to bodies that look at our land use from that perspective, so i would like to support mr. steen in this position and would like to motion that. >> okay, so there is a motion to move forward on mr. steen to the board for this seat on the market-octavia citizen's advicery committee. i just want to say a couple of things. i was one of the members had brought up concerns about insuring that we had a low income perspective in the market-octavia citizens advisory committee. i want to really appreciate mr. wolff for
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really spending the additional time to do some work and some research around some of the issues that impact our lower income communities and appreciate the time you spent with me to sit down and talk about some of these issues and i think they are much more fleshed out and i understand your perspective a lot better. do you really think that your work is focused around small business development and i think that perspective is incredibly important for this plan, but i think in terms of what the seat is being called for, i think that mr. steen more strongly represents that perspective that i would like to see as a low income sro tenant that lives in the octavia-market plan. the market-octavia plan also includes district 6 as well as district 5 and we don't have any member in district 6 in the cac i know that mr. steen lives in a historic sro hotel
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on market street and also does a lot of work on continuum care and just was appreciative of your ability to be able to articulate i think what you think are some of the perspectives and needs of very low income residents in the area. i know we can kind of debate what is low income, what is not. i generally don't view ami above 60 percent to be low income. i used to be in that income range, actually right around 60, 70 percent ami i do not consider myself low income. that being said, nick, i know the lgbt center does really support low income residents and i would like to see you in some capacity engaged in this cac in the future, or another cac where i think your small business expertise will really come in use and really appreciate the work you have done in viz valley as well. i was very impressed by mr. steen
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and will be happy to support this motion. mr. farrell. >> do you want --. >> i'm sorry, supervisor wiener and then supervisor farrell. >> thank you, madam chair. again, thank you to both candidates. i as i did two weeks ago or three weeks ago, whenever the last meeting was, support mr. wolff and am proud to join supervisor cohen in that support. i also know that rebecca rolf, executive director of the lgbt center which provides services to low income people, was here but due to the length of the last item had to leave and i know she feels strongly about this and i agree with her. i think mr. wolff would provide an excellent perspective on the market-octavia cac as i mentioned, i work with the cac
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frequently and i think he would bring a terrific perspective. i also think the lgbt center, having the center directly connected into the cac makes a lot of sense as we have more development in that part of market street the lgbt center is going it play a more and more significant role in the community so i think it makes sense to have someone from the center on there, which is why i was excited when mr. wolff applied. i think he does work with low income people, the center certainly works with an enormous number of low income people in the lgbt community and otherwise and i also want to respond to a point that supervisor kim just made about what qualifies as low income. this is a debate we have had in the past. but just to be very, very clear, under 80 percent of ami under san francisco law,
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state law and federal law is considered to be low income. the federal housing act of 1937 defines 80 percent or under 80 percent as low income. california uses the same standard. our housing element defines under 80 percent of ami as low income. our housing code defines under 80 percent as low income. our planning code also at section 401b defines under 80 percent of ami as low income and our administrative code defines under 80 percent of ami as low income. i have not seen any other legal standards that provide otherwise so whatever one's personal opinion, the standards that we apply in san francisco define under 80 percent of the ami as low income and the enabling
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legislation creating a low income seat for the market-octavia cac does not provide otherwise. so i think for the sake of consistency we should be applying that standard. i will also note that this seat was held for a number of years by peter cohen, who by his own statement before this committee almost a year ago is not low income. and mr. cohen held the seat for quite some time and when he was not reappointed by the board of supervisors earlier this year 5 members of the board, two of whom are sitting here in this committee today, voted to reappoint him and i don't recall this issue being brought up. so i'm surprised it hear it being brought up today from someone who under san francisco's own definition of low income undisputiblely qualifies as low income. so i do support mr. wolff and
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colleagues i ask for your support. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor farrell. >> to both candidates, thank you very much for coming forward. much appreciated. will looks like we'll have a split here. i associate myself with some of supervisor wiener's comments. you know, to me this is a seat where it's a low income seat but that's a qualification to sit on this, not that you have to be working as your vocation in that community necessarily. and i do believe i am very familiar with the lgbt center, i'm very supportive of that and rebecca and all the good work you do, that's something i would like to be supportive of, especially here given, as supervisor wiener mentioned, it's the heart of this area. so anyways, i will again thank you to you both for being here,
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much appreciated. i will be supporting mr. wolff and will continue to do so at the full board. >> thank you, supervisor farrell. i believe we will have to take a roll call on this item. just very quickly, i actually want to concur with supervisor wiener's statements about the definitions. i think clearly it fits under the definition of low income. i think that's definitely the case. i think then peter cohen, we certainly felt that he could represent the perspective of low income communities due to his work in affordable housing so i think he was able to represent that perspective, but i do agree that i would much more prefer to have a resident in the market-octavia plan that is low income that understands the population, knows the population because they are their neighbors. so i think that is certainly important. i think that actually either of you will be great on the cac no matter what happens at the full board i will support either of you. i do feel more comfortable moving ford with
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mr. steen as our recommendation to the full board but if it is the case the full board goes with mr. wolff, i will certainly support you to the full board as well. i want to comment quickly on the lgbt center. i agree it's at the heart of the plan but when we created the cac last december and we had 9 seats up, that issue did not come up that we needed to have someone from the lgbt center. i wish i had the opportunity to support the lgbt center last year when we had 9 open seats because that certainly was the case. i will move forward with this motion. can we take roll call on this motion, madam clerk. >> supervisor farrell. >> no. >> supervisor avalos. >> aye. >> supervisor kim. >> aye. >> kim aye, two ayes, one no. >> i want to thank the applicants before us today, i think we have